Atkins lays out future for infrastructure development

Automation and biometrics will dominate Arabia's aviation infrastructure development over the next 50 years, according to a new future-gazing survey by design, engineering and project management consultancy Atkins Middle East.

The survey, carried out to mark the company’s half century of operations in the Middle East, identifies the “most likely” tech innovations we’ll see in aviation infrastructure as automated check-ins (94%), biometric gates (90%) and laser powered security scanners (90%).

The survey was conducted among 126 of Atkin’s design, engineering and project management experts who shared their forecasts of what the Middle East will look like in the next 50 years.
Atkins, which has partnered Dubai International (DXB) for the last six years to assist with performance improvement including energy management, capacity, passenger throughput and customer service enhancement, says regional growth will centre around increased efficiency and some facilities expansion.
“This is because of the predicted growth of the Middle East as a hub for transit passengers as we see growth in airport travel and population growth in the region. Additionally, we also see the use of Digital Asset Management to manage every asset to improve long term efficiency and predictability of life cycle costs,” said Julian Small - Aviation Market Director, Atkins Middle East and Africa, (Pictured Right)
Atkins has completed an autonomous vehicle study for DXB to get people to and from and in and around the airport. “In terms of next steps, we are currently looking at the reconfiguration of check in and rationalising the way it is set out to improve efficiency,” added Small.